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History on UH’s side
Hawaii followed its last 66-point
loss with a victory at home
BOISE, Idaho » On Sept. 14, 1996, when the current fifth-year seniors on the Hawaii football team were high school freshmen, UH went to Laramie, Wyo., for a game against the Cowboys of Wyoming. The Rainbows lost 66-0 in the program's second-most-lopsided defeat.
One week later, at Aloha Stadium, UH beat Boise State 20-14 for one of its two wins that season.
Could that be a good omen for the current Warriors, who were blasted 69-3 by the Broncos here Friday?
After a 66-point loss, you look for positives anywhere you can find them.
UH quarterback Tim Chang was asked if he and his teammates can rise from the ashes in time to give well-rested Louisiana Tech a game in six days. The Bulldogs had a bye this weekend.
"We're going to find out. We have a big game next week," Chang said. "We got beat up pretty good at UTEP and we came back and won."
The Miners beat the Warriors 51-20, and UH knocked off San Jose State 46-28 the following week, at home.
Can Hawaii (3-4, 3-3 Western Athletic Conference) bounce back from a pounding twice as bad?
"Definitely," senior cornerback Abraham Elimimian said. "The first thing is we are coming home, and we know we can win at home. Then we play at Fresno, and we know we can win at Fresno. Anything is possible."
After the double dose of Bulldogs, the Warriors finish out with three home nonconference games, against Idaho, Northwestern and Michigan State.
If UH doesn't get healthy fast, the WAC-joining Vandals might be the only remaining opponent the Warriors are favored to beat. Unless there's a miracle turnaround and they win at least four of their remaining games, the Warriors will be home for the holidays -- and not at Aloha Stadium for the Hawaii Bowl.
"Right now, obviously we're beat up. Hopefully we'll have enough of them back next week to get it going," said coach June Jones, whose team failed to score an offensive touchdown for the first time since the 1999 opener against USC, Jones' first game as Hawaii coach.
The Warriors -- as they did after the UTEP loss -- hid any embarrassment after Friday's lopsided defeat. Amazing, considering the upperclassmen are veterans of three winning seasons in a row. The time is running out to make it four straight.
Before this season, UH was 28-12 in offensive lineman Uriah Moenoa's first three years as a starter. He took Friday night's debacle philosophically.
"It's football. It happens. You win some, you lose some. Unfortunately it was a big margin, but a loss is a loss. We just got to look past it," he said. "All we can control is our destiny in the future. So that's what we have to work on now."
Moenoa joined the lengthy injury list with a strained hamstring Friday.
Going into the game, there was a lot of focus on Chang needing 241 yards to pass Ty Detmer for the NCAA career passing-yardage record -- national focus, from USA Today and ESPN. The fact that Chang failed in that attempt by 14 yards, and, instead, broke Mark Hermann's career interception mark -- all on national TV -- means the Warriors have that much more work to attain the level of respect they crave.
As for Boise State, the pollsters and computers have to figure out if the Broncos are as good as they looked Friday, or if the Warriors are just plain battered and bad.
"They're a good team," senior receiver Britton Komine said. "There's a reason that they're ranked."
